BT has reported a 3 per cent fall in half-year earnings for its all-Ireland operations to £397.8 million (€442.3 million), excluding foreign exchange movements.
The company said its revenue trend had improved in the second quarter and that gross margin had risen by 7 per cent during the six months to September 30th.
EBITDA increased by 21 per cent year-on-year as a result of cost cutting.
Chris Clark, chief executive of BT Ireland, said the company’s shift to managed services and focus on cost had enabled it to make progress on profitability.
“We’ve fundamentally changed our strategy in the Republic to concentrate on our business and government customers,” he said.
Its parent, BT, increased revenue and dividend forecast for the full-year today after stringent cost cuts helped the former telecoms monopoly to beat second quarter core earnings expectations.
BT, which is in the process of restructuring following two profit warnings last year, said today underlying costs were down £932 million in the first half.
That early progress means it now expects to take out at least £1.5 billion pounds of costs in the full year, and full-year revenue to be down between 3 to 4 per cent, compared with an earlier forecast of a 4-5 per cent drop.
Free cash flow targets have also been hiked, with the group now forecasting at least £1.6 billion pounds, compared with the earlier forecast of over £1 billion, allowing it to forecast a full-year dividend up around 5 percent on last year.
"We have had another quarter of progress but there remains a lot more to do," chief executive Ian Livingston said.
BT was forced to restructure at the end of the last financial year after reviewing the Global Services division, a supplier of IT services to multinational companies which had for years been touted as the growth engine.
It announced new spending and cost saving targets in May after two earlier profit warnings at the division prompted a massive writedown, a cut to the dividend and 15,000 job cuts.
The restated outlook and dividend follows a strong performance in the second quarter.
The key figure of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) was up 2 per cent to £1.44 billion, compared with a Reuters poll forecasting 1.37 billion pounds, after cost cuts offset a weaker top line.
The company said it had seen improvements across all its line of businesses but BT Retail looked to have operated strongly, growing core earnings at the division by 11 percent despite a 5 per cent drop in revenues.
The group cut costs at Global Services by 8 per cent, with the work force reduced by 1,600 in the quarter. Earnings from the division were down 10 per cent on the year to £95 million pounds, but up from £62 million in the first quarter.